1. Pan-European Public procurement Online
PEPPOL
Pan-European Public procurement Online

2. Starting Point
Overall, governments are the largest buyer in the European Union, but they are lagging behind major industries in electronic data exchange with suppliers.
Government purchases in the European Union account for around 16 % of GDP, which is equal to 1,500 Billion Euro.
Overall capabilities of governments to handle key processes with their suppliers such as tenders, orders, delivery notes, catalogues, invoices, or payments is lagging behind other major industries.
The lack of common standards for electronic data exchange is considered an obstacle for companies to participate without barriers in public procurement processes.

3. Change Ahead
EU member states have expressed a political will to change public procurement significantly.
The Manchester ministerial declaration of 24 November 2005
defines the target:
“By 2010 all public administrations across Europe will have
the capability of carrying out 100 % of their procurement
electronically and at least 50 % of public procurement above
the EU public procurement threshold will be carried out
electronically.”

4. SwissDIGIN, AustriaPRo
Initiatives
Initiatives have reached the critical mass to lift off and generate a huge impact. Anticipate rapid changes for 2008 – 2011 !
PRIVATE SECTOR
INITIATIVES
SwissDIGIN, AustriaPRo
CEN
CEN/BII
CEN/E-Invoicing
CEN eCat etc.
EU-COMMISSION
CIP, IDABC. PROCURE,..

5. Vision
The broader vision is that any company (incl. SMEs) in the EU can communicate electronically with any EU governmental institution for all procurement processes.

6. CIP Large Scale Pilot
The PEPPOL consortium has submitted a proposal under the European Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) Call 2007.
Pilots will be implemented, which demonstrate the interoperability of national solutions.
The proposed budget is 20 Mio. Euro. A part of the budget is reserved for countries joining later.
The project proposed has 3 main phases:
Q2/ Q2/2009: Requirements and design
Q2/ Q2/2010: Implementation
Q2/ Q2/2011: Pilots running

7. Consortium and Reference Group
Reference group (Participation in a second stage envisaged)
Regional Nodes

8. Coverage
Between October 2007 and April 2008 six additional countries decided to join the reference group.
Number of countries
Reference group
Consortium
Population covered
(in Million)

9. Strategy Common EU Standards
National solutions will not be replaced, instead they will be aligned with common European standards and then linked.
Common EU Standards

10. Project Scope The project proposed consists of 8 workpackages:
E-Signature
Virtual Company Dossier
E-Catalog
E-Ordering
E-Invoicing
Consortium Management
Awareness, Training and Consensus Building
Solutions architecture, design and validation

11. Open Infrastructure (WP 8)
Framework
Pre Award
Tendering
Post Award
Procurement
Payment
Virtual Company
Dossier (WP 2)
eCatalogues (WP 3)
eOrdering (WP 4)
eInvoicing (WP 5)
eSignature (WP 1)
Open Infrastructure (WP 8)

12. Action required
Governments, suppliers and software companies have to take action now to avoid being left behind
Governments and their suppliers should adjust their business processes and modify their IT-systems.
Standard software suppliers should modify their software and adhere to common standards for the public sector in the EU.
Governments may have to adopt new laws:
All electronic processes should be easy as possible and legal barriers need to be removed.
It should be mandatory to transact with government only electronically.

13. Participate Now
Governments and software companies are invited to participate now.
Governments, which are not yet consortium members are invited to participate in a reference group to get more information and join the consortium later. A budget has been reserved for those countries.
The project is interested in the views of the software industry. software suppliers are invited to participate in a technical advisory group to get all the information, how to connect to the PEPPOL infrastructure and provide their input to the design of the specifications.

14. Coordination
The project is inviting all other initiatives relevant to public e-Procurement to link with PEPPOL.
Coordination is considered very important to avoid duplication of efforts and share experiences.
For each initiative or project relevant to the PEPPOL project a liaison manager will be appointed and other initiatives and projects are invited to do the same.
Expert
groups
Projects

15. Mr. Giancarlo DE STEFANO
Contact
Further information can be obtained from the regional contact points below:
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Ireland Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, UK/Scotland please contact:
Mr. André HODDEVIK (Project Director)
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Romania please contact:
Mr. Giancarlo DE STEFANO
Germany, Netherlands please contact:
Ms. Maria A. WIMMER
Austria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Western Balkan
please contact:
Mr. Peter SONNTAGBAUER (Public Relation Director)
Belgium, Luxembourg
please contact:
Mr. Alain Ducass